FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director
Phone: 917.691.5118
Email: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
Truth Wins Out Slams Philadelphia Catholic Archdiocese for Offering Anti-Gay Sports Camp
Male Retreatants Taught to “Resist” Homosexuality Through Athletic Activity
BURLINGTON, Vt – Truth Wins Out slammed the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia today after the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Kathy Boccella revealed it plans to hold an all-male sports camp this weekend with the purpose of teaching men how to “resist homosexual urges.” The retreat is sponsored by a group called Courage, an official archdiocesan ministry that uses a 12-step program, similar to Alcoholics Anonymous, to encourage Catholics struggling with so-called “same-sex attraction” to suppress their sexuality and live totally celibate lives.
“The idea that homosexuality is a treatable disease like alcoholism, or that sports can somehow influence a person’s sexuality, is an insult to common sense that’s totally detached from reality,” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. “The so-called ‘Courage’ ministry masquerades stereotypes as science. It’s shameful that the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia is selling this snake oil to vulnerable parishioners.”
The Courage camp, in which “men physically compete on the field while enriching their souls through a daily regimen of prayer, confessions, mass, and the Liturgy of the Hours,” is being held at a Philadelphia-area seminary after a bruising week for the ex-gay industry. Dr. Robert Spitzer, author of a widely-repudiated 2001 study that claimed certain “highly motivated” homosexuals could change from gay to straight, retracted the study and apologized to the LGBT community. Additionally, the Pan American Health Organization, an arm of the World Health Organization, condemned so-called “reparative” or “conversion” therapy as a violation of human rights and a threat to the health of its victims.
“By promising celibacy rather than a cure, Courage is serving up the very same discredited anti-gay propaganda as the better-known ‘ex-gay’ programs – wrapped in a more subtly-colored bow,” said John Becker, TWO’s Director of Communications. “But whether it’s praying or playing, it doesn’t work. You just can’t ‘play away the gay.’”
News of the Courage “ex-gay” camp comes at the same time that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is defending Msgr. William J. Lynn, its former secretary of the clergy, against criminal charges that he protected predatory priests. Msgr. Lynn is the highest-ranking Catholic Church official in the United States to face trial on charges related to child sexual abuse. The Vatican is said to be monitoring the landmark case.
“For the Philadelphia Archdiocese to demand that LGBT Catholics repress their natural, adult sexuality at the same time as they’re defending a man who shuffled pedophile priests between unknowing parishes, displays a level of arrogance that can only be described as astounding,” said TWO’s Becker. “The archdiocese has lost any moral authority to force its Stone-Age sexual strictures on gay and lesbian Catholics.”
Truth Wins Out is a nonprofit organization that fights anti-LGBT extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
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Yeah, “curing” it by sending them away to all-male sports camps. Makes sense.
Yeah, Robert, that was my first thought. Banging into panting, sweaty men all weekend followed by a shower would really give me ‘major shrinkage’. N O T!
Sounds like locking an alcoholic in a liquor store to keep him out of bars.
Carrying a shotgun doesn’t seem to have kept Maurice from loving the cock, either (Gods bless you, Merchant-Ivory). I can hear you asking: What’s the similarity between a movie based on an EM Forster novel and an ex-gay sports camp (they don’t call it “camp” for nothing)? Answer: they’re both works of fiction.
I’m sorry, but I have to jump in on this one. This is not part of a monolithic “exgay industry.” There is no money to be made, Courage operates largely on donations. There is in NO way ANY pressure at all to try and live as a heterosexual. This isn’t some kind of authoritarian counseling thing, these are groups of close friends. And the attempt to conflate the sex abuse scandal with Courage is not only complete bull, but shows the depths to which TWO will go in order to slander it’s targets. Even in a purely journalistic way, it does not speak well of you folks.
“There is in NO way ANY pressure at all to try and live as a heterosexual”
Except for that whole part about how being gay is wrong.
It’s still perpetuating the bigoted notion that being gay is something that needs to be fixed or resisted Wing-nut. If these are really “close friends” than that makes this scam worse in some ways. And this is not being conflated with the sex abuse problem it is pointing out the rank hypocrisy of trying to control the sex lives of consenting adults when there are child rapists in their ranks. Your attempt to label it a conflation and paint the aggresors as the victims is not only complete bull but shows the depths to which you bigots will go in your crusade to keep gay people as your legal inferiors. From a purely human decency way, it does not speak well of you people.
Wing-nut Richard said “There is in NO way ANY pressure at all to try and live as a heterosexual.”.
I’ve read a lot of your wing-nuttery, but I have to admit I’m surprised by how you can make a statement so utterly detached from reality. You really are a master at lying to yourself, aren’t you? Unfortunately for your anti-gay agenda your lies are transparent to us.
One of my first sexual experiences was in the church locker room after a basketball game. Go to it guys!
Wingnut–how can you live with yourself saying such idiotic things? Are you on drugs or something?
This sounds like a homosexual teen’s dream… a large group of sexually repressed gay hormone charged teens all alone just waiting to give into the urges of sin after being told not to give in’ waiting desperately to rebel…. wasn’t around in my day :-)
Is this a camp for seminarians?
How well I remember the handful of Courage members who would go to their weekly Courage meeting, and then come to the much larger Dignity meeting each Sunday. This was years ago in St. Louis when Dignity had a much larger group and Courage had only a handful of members. It always struck me as odd that
Courage advised their members to go to mass and read spiritual and scriptural readings and to meditate daily – some things which not even priests did.
So playing sports makes you straight?
Yeah, Gareth Jones would like a word with you.
No, this isn’t bigotry at all. This is purely about helping young men to resist their homosexual urges, in an environment of close, intimate friendship. At Courage Camp, participants will enjoy a rigorous regimen of running, sweating, and close-contact sports, all while being reminded that it is totally sinful and wrong to derive pleasure from the young, throbbing, nubile male buttocks all around them. Whether it’s morning yoga, mid-afternoon wrestling matches, or lights-out pillow fights, the activities at Courage Camp will make a God-fearing heterosexual male out of the most recalcitrant homo! And I can tell you from personal experience that if you’re one of those naughty boys who refuses to be cured, you won’t want to end up on the wrong, er, end of our resident disciplinarian, Father Fabio.
If any of you godless sinmongers are still doubting me, I encourage you to have a look at our promotional video, “Ex-Gays Gone Wild”. It’s out on video and it’s not to be missed. See you there, studmuff – er, dudes.
And also stop bullying me by challenging me. That’s very disrespectful to my freedom of religion.
Very creative, taking a screen name. Also, from what I’ve been vigorously told by Mr. Hurst, you’re not suppose to hyphenate “wing-nut.” Signing off now. See you in hell, man.
1: You can’t change a person’s sexual orientation.
2: 12-Step programs don’t work, and are a big, fat cult.
It’s as though gay men who play sports don’t exist. I didn’t know I was merely a figment of someone’s imagination.
Also, why is anyone still allowing that diseased cult anywhere near youth? It’s bad enough they are seemingly immune to the police.
@Richard you, sir, owe me a new drink for that last post. Excellent deconstruction of that “camp”!
…whereby “see you in hell”, I was referring to Father Fabio’s Dungeon for the Incorrigibly Naughty. Are you unduly distracted by the beefy, naked jocks in the shower room? Do you have unclean thoughts while dining in the refectory on Sausage-and-Meatballs Tuesday? Then it’s off to Father Fabio with you, and rest assured he’ll give you the penance you know you deserve!
Aulton, I’ll be happy to get a drink with you. I happen to be an expert on gay bars, as I go to these places all the time to, um, cure homosexuals. You should know that I’m one of the most successful homosexual-straighteners in my trolling league by the way. Every man I’ve ever slept with renounced homosexuality for good.
I’m honestly not sure why I have this effect on people. I guess it’s just the Lord’s power flowing in my veins.
So you these priests who claim to be CALLED to be celebate and they can’t even keep it in their pants, and they turn around to us who are NOT called to celebacy and say to be accepted that’s what we have to be. Is it just me, or does that sound incredibly hypocritical?
@Richard
That is simply not true — if the church did not condemn those who were homosexual and invoke the ideas of purgatory hell against them, then I would agree with you — but the church DOES condemn those that are homosexual, and DO invoke the ideas of purgatory and hell to threaten gay people.
Therefore, yes, the idea is the same, whether they make money at it or not.
A boy I knew who killed himself as a teenager almost certainly because he had homosexual desires was directly influenced by his family – but the family itself got its views from the church.
While far better than evangelical protestant groups, the RC Church DOES use its power to harm young gay people – that is simply not acceptable.
Christ either loved ALL people as they were created, or he is not worthy of any worship.
Sorry.
Regards,
Reyn
The message of the evangelical fundamentalist “ex-gay” ministries is that being gay is a form of “sexual brokenness” which you must try to “overcome”. The message of Catholic groups like Courage (and EnCourage here in the UK) is that being gay is an “intrinsically disordered condition”, and that, although you probably can’t change it, you must never form a gay sexual relationship with anyone because it’s a sin, so you must lead a life of perpetual sexual abstinence whether you like it or not.
Speaking as a gay Catholic myself, I see little to choose between the two. Both are attempts at religious abuse.
I was at Courage’s annual conference in 2011. It is a myth that they don’t support exgay ministries and change, they do.
H-m-m-m…It sounds to me like “Wingnut” has many aliases on this website. As for the Church of Rome, things continue to go the way of the Nazis during WWII. Considering the present Pope was a registered Nazi himself, should we be surprised? The abandonment of Vatican II has hurt me on a personal level. I am now a proud Episcopalian who is now commited to my faith!
William…you can still be a person of faith…the Episcopal Church, which I am not a member of, would be a good home for you.
As a gay man, hard as this may be to hear, you have no home in the Roman Catholic Church. The denomination (and that is what it is, one of many) is so anti gay that there is no way a Gay person can truly call it home and maintain his or her personal integrity.
Abandon your faith? No. Leave the Roman Catholic Church as a gay man…yeah. For your own sake, move on, be happy, and love God in an environment that is not toxic for you.
Good luck
Kerry Keyack, good for you. I am glad you have found a real home!
William, seconding Gene.
You really need to hand out with a better class of christian
Hang. Damn spell check.
Gene, how’s the husband?
1. The main line of the message of Courage is something like this: “Join our all-male sports camp weekend to avoid homosexuality”. It is not a contradiction?
2. “Wing-nut” said that in this Courage´s camp “participants will enjoy a rigorous regimen of running (…), mid-afternoon wrestling matches, or lights-out pillow fights”. That sounds like a homo-erotic sex fantasy.
3. The “Wing-nut” dude refers to us as: “recalcitrant homo(s)”, “naugthy boys”, and “refuse(d) to be cured”. If it is not a hate speech, What it is?
4. Homophobia is what really needs to be cured, not homosexuality, and homophobia is the B-Side of racism.